Adventures in Birding

#166-169

I haven't written in quite a while. Summers aren't great for birding for several reasons. I don't like high temps, so it's hard to get out hiking. There are lots of leaves on the trees, so birds are hard to see, and we don't typically have a lot of new species going through the area.

Fall migration has started, though, so I've started back up birding!

Last week I spotted #166, Black Vulture hanging out with a group of Turkey Vultures. Then just this week the warblers started showing up again.

#167 - Nashville Warbler   (Ebird is telling me this is a lifer for me, too! It's hard to keep track of which warblers I've seen!

I also got to watch two Osprey flying over the lake at a local state park. One Osprey was doing low circles over the lake, it would land in the lake, and then splash around. After doing it a few times, I was convinced it wasn't trying to catch a fish, but probably bathing! It was really cool to see, and there were also two Double-crested Cormorants in the lake. They were probably all migratory birds passing through.

I went on a Fall bird walk with a few fellow birders and my sister yesterday and I had two new species for the year, #168 - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (a rare bird for this park, we heard it call clearly and when I went back to the park today, I heard them again and I spotted one briefly) and #169 - Acadian Flycatcher.

This past Spring I focused on Kinglets and Vireos, and I think next year I'm going to focus on Flycatchers. They look very similar, but their songs can set them apart, so it's really great to learn their songs!

Some other photos I got recently:

Red-eyed Vireo  

Magnolia Warbler  

Great Blue Heron  

Turkey Vulture  

Belted Kingfisher  


I'm going to be visiting Cape May during the second week of October, which I've heard is a really great time to visit one of the best birding places in the US. It should be a really fun trip and I hope I see some awesome new birds!